Ur Draugr/Haar
Haar / Ur Draugr
(ATMF)
The multitude of split LP and EP offerings of late has been a boon for those seeking innovative voices in the spacious dungeon of high concept, black and death metal.
Out of Trieste, Italy, AT/MF has fused two opposite ends of the old United Kingdom in Haar and Ur Draugr. The former is named for a cold sea fog, characteristic of the east coast of England or Scotland. It’s a summer fog, evocative of a place where autumn never really relinquishes its grip on the landscape. Based in Edinburgh, Haar offers the first three tracks on the split, “Extinction” “Strings” and “Architects” built around the idea of sehnsucht, a pathological human yearning to connect with the supernatural. The band offers pretty clean guitar lines and breath-of-fresh-air production, and from the opener, it’s clear they’re built around rapid percussion timing and blood rattled vocals.
None of the Haar tracks really stand out from other black and death metal practitioners, the speedy interludes on feel dark and the vocals are bleak, but aside from their self-identified esoteric orientation, it’s hard to hear any of this work as more than good. Solid but often they’re ordinary. Conversely though, Ur Draugr, from Perth on the west coast of Australia really presses on the form’s boundaries in their single track, “The Vista Profunda” that butts up against twenty minutes in length and sprawls all over a panoramic view of what I can only imagine is a circle of hell. The song opens slowly with almost a minute of numbing, anticipatory silence before ripping into something more powerful. Drew Griffiths offers muscular and broad vocals, a shuddering, swinging from the gallows quality that is only borrowed against by the more baroque chorus. I wished they had stayed low where he commands much more attention.
What Ur Draugr does that is most captivating is sprawl out into some mesmerizing psychedelic instrumental metal riffs, spacing out their thunderous interludes and bursts of wretched lyrics that deal obliquely with Lovecraft and Nietzche and “The King In Yellow”. After a few listens to “The Vista Profunda” I was still finding parts to revel in and felt compelling to circle back to Bandcamp and grab The Wretched Ascetic, their three song solo release that is every bit as compelling.
I’m not terribly impressed by Haar after multiple listens, but I’m not going to balk at what the band is trying to do with their space. I want more. Were I looking simply at their split mate though, I’d dub the whole thing a messy and black-eyed necessity.
